Breakfast at the hotel and then off by about 8:45 for our first stop of the day. Precious Moments Chapel.
Precious Moments are the childlike figurines that became popular in the late 70's and early 80's
. They are still produced and collected by people the world over. The artist who created the Precious Moments characters is Sam Butcher. Mr. Butcher is a life long artist who selected a very rural plot of land in Southwest Missouri to build a chapel to showcase his artwork. The chapel opened in 1989 and features original artwork by Mr. Butcher. He painted the walls and ceiling telling stories of the Bible through his art. The chapel is a little quirky (sounds like a theme with some of our stops on this trip). Interesting and amazing but quirky.
We headed about 10 miles south to the George Washington Carver birth place. The site is a National Park National Monument. The have trails that take you through the property, as well as a museum with a video telling the story of his life, a full lab for school field trips, and other displays showcasing his research and findings. Mr. Carver was born a slave but was allowed to leave to attend a school for Negros. He loved art and finally was accepted into a college that allowed Negros
. His professors admired his art but encouraged him to go into botany as it would provide more career opportunities. He studied botany and eventually earned a masters degree. About that time Booker T Washington was starting a college for Negros in Tuskegee, Alabama, and asked Mr. Carver to come lead his botany department. Mr. Carver helped farmers learn the value of crop rotation, discovered uses for peanuts, soy beans, and sweet potatoes. He was recruited by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In fact, Edison offered Mr. Carver $175,000 per year if he would come work with Edison in his lab. Back in the early 1900's that was like a million dollar offer! Mr. Carver refused and instead kept his meager professor salary and lived in a one bedroom apartment on campus. He helped Henry Ford develop soy based plastics and rubber products. Mr. Carver was considered the foremost Negro scientist of his generation. Most interesting is that he was a Christian who gave all credit boldly to God. He said that he did not invent anything - only that God choose to reveal his creative mysteries through him on His time
. The NY Times criticized him for not being a serious about science by referring to God and creation all the time. Looks like the NY Times has not changed much in nearly 100 years.
We headed north in Missouri, stopped in Nevada Missouri for lunch. Unfortunately the small towns lack decent food. We tried a little diner that had been in business since 1938. Probably would have been better for us if it had closed yesterday. Oh, well there is always the next meal.
We drove west into Kansas and did a drive through Fort Smith before heading north towards Kansas City. Lots of green rolling hills with lots of cows along this route.
We arrived into Overland Park, Kansas about 3:30pm. Checked into our hotel and then set out to visit the American Girl doll store in Kansas City. Grace was delighted to browse the store. A clerk at the store made some suggestions for our dinner so we took her advice and drove further into Kansas City (back into Missouri) and found a great restaurant in Country Club Plaza. A very fancy village area of high end shops and restaurants. After our challenging lunch a good dinner was just what we needed.
Back to our hotel, the kids took a swim in the pool, I typed up the journal and finalized our plans for tomorrow. Kansas City looks to have lots to see and do...
On to Kansas City...
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Kansas City, Kansas, United States
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2025-02-12
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Moe
2012-06-01
I love the painting and texturing that they did in that chapel! If I am ever in the area I will have to check it out! There are some really beautiful chapels out there. I really like to visit chapels because of the peaceful feeling that I can get there. Thank for posting these great pictures!